The Lord of the Rings Meets Diablo
Details on Snowblind's upcoming action role-playing game.
Looking at 2011 and beyond, the action role-playing genre is very much alive and well. Between Torchlight II, Dungeon Siege III, Darkspore, and Diablo III -- whenever it winds up being finished -- there are a lot of cool games on the way. One of the more promising is Snowblind's Lord of the Rings: War in the North. In case you're not familiar, the folks at Snowblind were responsible for the gleefully addicting Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. Based on what they're saying about War in the North, it sounds like they're doing everything right.
But hang on a second. Do you know what an action-RPG is? Basically it's a game like Diablo where you run around dungeons and kill tons of stuff at a fast pace. That stuff then drops equipment and items you can use or sell, and in the process you gain experience to level up and learn new skills. Mix in the occasional vendor visit to clear inventory space, stock up on restorative items, and advance the story, and then it's right back into the field to hack away at swarms of enemies and powerful bosses.
To catch up on everything going on with War in the North, Snowblind Producer Ruth Tomandl provided a ridiculous amount of information on everything from story setup to combat mechanics and progression. If you have any questions about the game, hopefully they're answered below. And if they're not, feel free to type angrily into the comments field.
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Since this is a Lord of the Rings game, where exactly it fits into the fiction is a big deal for fans. The focus of the game won't be on Frodo's quest to deliver the One Ring to Mount Doom, but rather deal with a different conflict. "During the first part of the game the heroes of the game's fellowship uncover Sauron's plans for the North and find that the war is much closer to Rivendell than they thought," says Tomandl.
"The heroes' job is to prevent those armies from destroying the last strongholds of the free peoples in the North. Sauron's Northern armies, like his Southern ones, are kind of a mixed bag, and they don't always get along with each other very well. Because one of his goals in the North is recruiting, he's bringing together a number of groups that are used to going their own way, but are finally being told to serve Sauron directly instead of just giving him lip-service. He needs some powerful commanders to control those groups, and has sent his top guy, Agandaûr, to oversee the whole northern front."
Who's Agandaur? "Far back in the history of the Men of Middle-earth, there was a group of Númenóreans who went over to the dark side and became servants of Sauron. The Mouth of Sauron and Agandaûr are both descended from that group. Agandaûr is ambitious and he's become one of Sauron's chief lieutenants. He's been sent to the North of Middle-earth to open up another front in the War of the Ring, and he's doing his job very effectively."
Though it's a different battle, Tomandl pointed out how it's linked to the books. "At the end of The Return of the King, Gandalf mentions a great battle that took place in Erebor, and says that if the Dwarves and Men there hadn't won that battle, the war could have been lost even if the One Ring had been destroyed. Frodo's quest was extremely important, but everyone in Middle-earth was drawn into the War of the Ring. Even Lothlórien, which was remote and well-protected, was attacked during the war. The fact that the whole world was at war is what we're drawing on for War in the North. Tolkien's work mentions Dwarves living in the Grey Mountains, and that the Orcs had a capital city at Mt. Gundabad, and that the Witch-king of Angmar had once ruled a large part of the North, so we're using that canon as the foundation of our story."
![[IMG]](http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/113/1135022/the-lord-of-the-rings-war-in-the-north-20101117095456045-000.jpg)
Challenges big and small.
But can you point to the location of the action on a map? "You could definitely point to the game's locations on a map of Middle-earth; in fact, we're using the same map that was used in the film as the basis for our world map. Everything in War in the North that wasn't in the films is based on information from the books; we've been careful to stay as close to the canon as we can. Our writer is a Lord of the Rings expert and a huge J.R.R. Tolkien fan, and he makes sure that everything we do works within the framework of the books. We also work closely with the license holders to make sure we're accurate to the lore."
Even if you're not fighting alongside the familiar faces you'd recognize from the movies, that doesn't mean they're cut out of this tale entirely. "You will encounter some of the Fellowship as they begin their journey, but as they travel farther South with the One Ring, you'll head farther North. Gandalf and Elrond both realize the great importance of destroying the One Ring, but they also see the big picture and know that they can't allow armies to mass on their doorstep.
"They decide to send your group farther north and east, to do what you can there. At that point, the original Fellowship has already been formed and is preparing to travel to Mordor. After that, even though the Fellowship is far away, you will meet some characters from the books that didn't make it into the films. Radagast the Brown, for example. We also have plenty of characters that are based on information in the books or appendices."
This being an action-RPG, a lot of the experience is going to be about killing a lot of hostile creatures and taking their stuff. To do so, you'll get a few different character classes. "Currently the design for the party is that each race is their own class, but that you'll be able to customize that character widely enough for different play styles. If you play as the Dwarf, you can customize him to be more of a tank, or more of a heavy damage dealer, or more ranged support. Players and Tolkien fans both know what a Dwarf's strengths are, and the Dwarf hero's abilities play to those strengths. Similarly, as the Ranger, you can focus on stealth, or close-in melee fighting, or ranged sniping; what the Dúnedain Rangers are known for.
"We want to give the players a lot of choices about their character, but we also want each of the three heroes to feel distinct from each other and to have their own strengths and weaknesses that make sense with their race. Also, if they're all clones of each other, that wouldn't make the other players depend on you because they can do everything you can. One of the great things about The Lord of the Rings is that each character is important in their own way -- they're not just generic fighting guys; they have significant roles within the world."
You might be wondering what kind of stuff there is to kill. "Pretty much all of the enemies in the films will make an appearance: plenty of orcs, for a start. Killing orcs is fun, so we don't want to skimp on that. There will also be some enemies that were in the books but not in the films (the giant spiders of Mirkwood, for example), and a few new characters that are based on information from the books. Agandaûr's main army -- the one he's leading personally -- is a group that didn't appear in the films but figures prominently in the history of Middle-earth."
And do they all just blindly charge at you? "Because the game is all about the heroes working together, we've crafted the enemies to work together, too. Most of the enemies are part of an army so they're used to group fighting, and they'll use their tactics against you. The more powerful enemies might buff the weaker ones by goading them into battle, and the weaker ones might flank you or hide behind their leaders. They're generally dirty fighters, since they are evil after all. Some of the wild trolls are loose cannons and will run straight through their allies to get a hit in on you, stepping on them if they're not quick enough getting out of the way. But mostly the enemies work together."
As tends to be the case within the genre, the more mobs you trample, the more powerful you become. The mechanics that determine exactly how you progress can often be the difference between good games and bad. "The character development and loot systems are similar to Snowblind's previous action-RPGs, but totally customized for this game. If you've played Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, you'll have a good idea of what to expect. Characters will gain XP and level up, and at each level players can spend points in their skill tree to customize their character's abilities. Weapons, armor, and other loot will drop from enemies or be found in the world, or can be purchased from vendors. We're big loot fans, and making a game where players are always finding awesome equipment is one of our top priorities. All of these different systems give you more ways to customize your character in order to be a more effective part of your Fellowship.
![[IMG]](http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/113/1135022/the-lord-of-the-rings-war-in-the-north-20101117095459529-000.jpg)
Hack, slash, and power up.
"Your hero's abilities come from two sources: their innate race abilities and their weapon abilities. Some weapons that you find will allow you to do special attacks or other actions, and those make up a big chunk of your special moves -- we'll be talking about the weapon abilities in much greater detail later on. The race abilities are unique to each of the three heroes; for example, the Dwarf has a War Cry ability which can be customized to draw more agro, stun or damage enemies, or add more melee damage to his attacks. Between the race abilities, the weapon abilities, and your basic melee and ranged attacks, you have a lot of choices during combat."
So how does this all work as a multiplayer experience? "Because AI bots fill in for heroes that aren't controlled by other players, the game difficulty is pretty similar whether playing alone or with other players. You'll be able to change the difficulty if your friends are significantly worse or better at the game than the AI bots are, though."
Surviving as a team will require quick thinking and intelligent use of abilities. "The enemies are too difficult to fight alone, without a party of three. That's one of many things to encourage the heroes to work together. But besides that, each hero has an area of specialty, so the others depend on him to do his job. If your party is getting attacked by archers, you really need the Elf to put up a sanctuary shield quickly. More powerful ranged attackers like to hide behind strong melee fighters, so if the Ranger uses his stealth attack to go around behind the group and take out the leader, it'll really help out his party.
"The third thing that makes you work as a team is that if you become incapacitated, your allies will need to help you. If your health goes down to zero, or if you're picked up by a troll or snagged by a spider web, you need your allies to help revive you or get you out of the situation that's incapacitating you. Players will be interacting most of the time: yelling to each other for help, giving each other advice, coordinating attacks, etc."
For Snowblind, there's also a different perspective being used for this title: over the shoulder instead of the traditional action-RPG overhead perspective. "Before War in the North, we were working on a game engine that had some third-person-shooter capabilities, and because we built War in the North using that engine, a lot of our early prototyping work used assets and functionality that we had been developing in the engine.
"We ended up really liking the immediacy that the third-person camera gave to the combat, especially the melee combat. Also, the transition between melee and ranged is subtler, and the ranged camera allows you to aim your ranged attacks for precise hits... At the same time it lets you see your character very well, and since customization is such a big part of the game, it's nice to give the player a good view of their armor, weapon, clothing, and other customization choices."
![[IMG]](http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/113/1135022/the-lord-of-the-rings-war-in-the-north-20101117095458670-000.jpg)
Slay for fun and loot.
For more customization, there'll also be a crafting system, though it'll be somewhat limited. "The Elf is able to create new items. One of her abilities is to find reagents, like herbs and mushrooms in the world and create items out of them. The other two characters will have to rely on the Elf for their crafting needs."
Beyond the combat, it seems like opportunities for character interaction and development will also be built in. "The three heroes will speak among themselves; they're pretty widely traveled and know what they're doing, but they have very different backgrounds and each will contribute information that the others don't have.
"When speaking to NPCs, players will be able to dig deeper into the story if they want, and ask questions about the world and that character's role in the events of the story, by using the conversation tree. Some players want to know as much about the story and characters as possible, and others just want to get the main points and get back into the action. We want to reward the players that want more information while streamlining the system for the action fans, and the conversation tree does that very well."
Finally, as an interesting bonus, the more hardcore crowd will be given some incentive to replay areas for loot and questing opportunities. "The story takes you along a path through the North, but we give the player a lot of incentive to return to previously played levels. The level will play out differently on subsequent playthroughs, and some side quests will only be completable on a second playthrough. There are also challenges that will send you back to places you've already been, and completing those challenges will give you special rewards."
Tomandl certainly said a lot about the game, and pretty much all of it sounds good. Of course we won't know anything for sure until we actually get to play the final game, but for now, Snowblind is saying all the right stuff. Perhaps you agree?
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